Penn Township commissioners approve liquor license for new Olive Garden.
Penn Township commissioners last week gave the go-ahead for a liquor license transfer that will help bring a new restaurant to town.
After a public hearing, the commissioners voted unanimously to approve the transfer of a liquor license from a shuttered Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Springettsbury Township to Penn, where it will be used by an Olive Garden in the new Gateway Hanover shopping center. The approval means Olive Garden is likely still on schedule to open with the rest of the new center just north of town this summer.
According to Mark Kozar, a lawyer with Flaherty & O’Hara who is representing the restaurant chain, the Hanover Olive Garden will be approximately 7,400 square feet and hold just more than 200 people. The store will employ a total of about 100 people, he said.
Penn Township Manager Jeffrey Garvick said after the vote that Penn will now hold 13 liquor licenses, with eight of those for restaurants that serve alcohol. The other five licenses are for distributors or those who use them only for special events, he said.
There is no specific guideline to how many licenses one municipality can have, Garvick said, but transfers like the one last week require a public hearing. Kozar was the only person who spoke on the matter at the meeting.
Representatives from Olive Garden have previously appeared before the commissioners seeking a variance for extra signage because of the restaurant’s location, something the board has also signed off
on.
The Gateway Hanover project is stretched over two parcels that span Hanover Borough and Penn Township in York County and Conewago Township in Adams County. About a dozen stores have announced they will have locations to the shopping center, with Target officials saying they plan to open there on July 24. The other stores will likely look to tie their opening to Target’s, center officials have said.
Commissioners said after their vote the move means another restaurant – one that’s well-respected and well-liked – will soon be coming to town.
“I think we’ve all been looking forward to this,” Commissioner Craig Prieber, president of the board, said to Kozar. “Welcome to the community.”
tstonesifer@eveningsun.com
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